


When I Was King

by AltanHal



Series: Here lies where I drown [1]
Category: Pirates of the Caribbean (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Fountain of Youth, Immortality, Pirates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-11
Updated: 2019-03-11
Packaged: 2019-11-15 13:53:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18074633
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AltanHal/pseuds/AltanHal
Summary: I once was a King regardless of my being a woman.But what am I a King of when my people are long forgotten, heard only in stories parents tell their children at night?---Inspired byThe Scythe's Songby hallowedmaiden.





	When I Was King

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [The Scythe's Song](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11478651) by [hallowedmaiden](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hallowedmaiden/pseuds/hallowedmaiden). 



> This can be read as a stand alone but I highly recommend reading [The Scythe's Song](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11478651) by hallowedmaiden for this to make sense. :)  
> Title is from One Ok Rock's When I Was King.
> 
> Model in the picture is Yung Dari on instagram.

I once was a King regardless of my being a woman.

There were nine of us. Lords of the seven seas and more, but only one would be chosen from the lot. Between us nine, we were the only ones with the power to elect a King. And so, it was only natural that I voted for myself. Selfish as it sounds, I needed to do what was right for the Court. We had to make a stand against the enemies bearing at our door.

But all other Lords had the same vainglory it seemed. Putting their own names in the hat. Equal votes for each.

Save for one Lord.

“Elizabeth, love.” Jack had said and I had thought for a moment that he had called me.

“Yes, Jack?” I had asked but he hadn’t been looking at me.

“I vote for Elizabeth.”

“What?” I had squawked indignantly, surprised that a vote was cast in my favor.

I knew Jack wanted to be King. Wanted it so badly but I couldn’t vie for him over myself because I knew what kind of King he’d make. Drunk on rum and too defensive of the Court that it’d be a weakness sighted immediately by our enemies.

But he had proven me wrong.

And so with a crown upon my head, I sang the song of war.

“The King and his men stole the queen from her bed, and bound her in her bones.”

“The seas be ours and by the powers, where we will we’ll roam.”

I was only the second King of our Court but the Brethren sailed under my command.

And then I had said, “Hoist the colours high! Never shall we die!”

One last war cry. One last order. Before I lost the first man I had loved. It wasn’t Jack, for Jack is the second and the last. The whelp as Jack had called him, swallowed by the sea, never to return in my arms.

I had no time to mourn, for a King can never lower her head, not even to cry, lest the weight of the crown snap her neck. 

Goodbye whelp. You’re home now. With Calypso, our Goddess of the sea.

But after him there was Jack. And I had been his ever since.

I was his King and I could still remember the gleam of pride in his eyes. 

Perhaps I still am a King. But what am I a King of when my people are long forgotten, heard only in stories parents tell their children at night?

I am the last of what we are. And so is Jack. But Jack had long abandoned the brand of pirates when the Pearl had finally sank. His first love claimed by the sea just as mine had.

So you see, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, when I was King, I had everything. But now I only have one thing, and he is my everything. Jack is the last thing–person–I have, and he is somewhere out there, hating my very existence.

It’s been 44 years since he left. I am not over it.


End file.
